Pummel (album)

pop punk "In the past year or so we've seen bands like Green Day and Season to Risk turning up at the Walmart in Brookfield, Missouri", remarked bassist Karl Alvarez. "We really like the idea of getting our records in places where people go who aren't hip to the mom and pop record stores that traditionally carry the independents. People forget that punk rock was on the majors early on with bands like Iggy and the Ramones. The fact that the major labels ignored the real groundbreaking rock of the '80s gave everyone a real bad feeling about the majors, but as it stands now, they are starting to get a little hipper." The band signed to Interscope Records, and in June 1994 used the money acquired from their recording contract to relocate from Brookfield to Fort Collins, Colorado, where Alvarez had lived as a child and where drummer Bill Stevenson's girlfriend lived. "We moved to Fort Collins with the advent of the major label because we finally had enough money to live like normal people after all those years", Alvarez later said. "That was the first time we had ever lived in separate residences. At the time I was actually married, which was a new one for the band to deal with, and everyone’s moving in their different circles, but we kept touring and making records." "[That] was the single smartest thing we probably ever did, really", said Egerton. "Bill and I had thrown around the idea of having a studio forever, because by then any time we were home, we were recording Big Drill Car or Chemical People. We were always recording somebody, so we really wanted a place where we could refine our skills that way. We read some books and tried to learn what we could about how to lay the place out, and we actually built the place ourselves." The album displayed a darker, angrier edge than most of the band's prior work. "It could possibly be our least poppy sounding", said Stevenson. "It's very hard."

Pummel was released April 11, 1995, through Interscope Records. A music video was released for "Million Bucks", and the band performed the song on the May 22, 1995, episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. They also performed "Long Distance" on the June 18, 1995, episode of 120 Minutes. However, the album did not sell enough copies to reach the Billboard charts. The band later remarked that they felt Interscope did a poor job of promoting the record. "[Interscope] bought The Blasting Room's equipment", said Stevenson. "Other than that, though, we didn't really have much involvement with them. I don't know if we were below their radar, really, and they didn't care that much. It didn't feel like we were on a major." Stevenson said in 1996:

<blockquote>Interscope gave us, like, a million bucks last year, and we built a recording studio, and then they basically didn't do too well with Pummel, so we bailed out and took our recording studio with us. I think the thing they didn't realize, and we did realize, is that it's easier to market some of those mall punk bands because you've got the fashion that's there with it; you know, the nice hairdos and the fake British accents. But with All or Descendents, it's basically these ugly dork people playing music. They thought they could market it because it was the right music, but the fact of it is that the music doesn't have anything to do with anything, really. We knew that. The song "Hetero", with lyrics written by Stevenson, drew some negative remarks. Reviewing the band's May 25, 1995, performance at Irving Plaza, Jon Pareles of The New York Times called it "openly homophobic, and it goes on to describe the narrator as a 'cigarette smokin', seal killin' redneck. Jon Ginoli, openly gay frontman of the queercore band Pansy Division, called it "an obviously anti gay backlash song. In it [Stevenson] proclaims himself as a normal straight guy who can't get laid, and he's blaming gay guys. What? In his words, 'the only way you're cool is if you're gay or dead'. Huh? 'Maybe I should pierce my butt or get a few tattoos / Maybe I should wear a dress and be a homo like you / Normal, hetero, straight guy / Yeah that's right, I'm a straight, normal, girl fuckin', coffee drinkin', titty suckin', cigarette smokin', seal killin', redneck ass bastard from hell'. Hmm, I don't think the gay guys are to blame for that [ ] Hearing the song, it was hard not to take it personally [ ] At the same time I felt sad for the guy, who so obviously appeared threatened by gay people having more visibility and acceptance."